Tips for St Martin / Sint Maartin

[Azbo]

I'm thinking of taking a trip to St Martin with the misses but don't know too much about it. I'd like a hotel by the sea with nice views to chill our but also need to be near restaurants and bars that I can walk to in the night. I'm not sure whether to go to the Dutch or French side and also would like to know rough ideas of cost, e.g. how much is the average drink? (I plan to have a few!! Any advice would be great!

Cheers

[Puggit]

French side, French side, French side, French side, French side....

(am I clear?)

Dollars and general Yanks on the Dutch side, Euros and refined Yanks (and French) on the French side. Mainly European prices, but you can get cheap food and drink in 'locals' places.

We stayed here on the French side: http://love-sxm.com/love/ACCUEIL_GB.html - very much a chill out hotel (with excellent, if laid back, service). I would thoroughly recommend Grand Case. It is literally a small strip of restaurants and boutique shops.

Here's a pic I took after arriving at the beach above:



You must (must, must) visit Maho beach by the airport:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaEJLdGx9BI

Edited by Puggit on Monday 22 April 08:56

[Fishtigua]

As said above, the French side is where to stay. Grab a hire car and have a good mooch around all the island. Avoid Town during working hours. Hot, smelly and packed.

Grab a ferry over to Anguilla.

http://ivisitanguilla.com/by-sea/

Or

Match racing on some Americas Cup yachts for about $80.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hkZlrB11hw

http://www.stmaartencruiseexcursions.com/StMaarten...

[The Leaper]

All the advice so far is 100%.

• Avoid staying in the Dutch side as it is too USA dominated; stay in the French side.

• Maho beach is definately worth doing. The Sunset Bar is right by the end of the runway. When I went the only jumbo that flew to the island was KLM's and on a Thursday I recall. May be more of them now. Take offs are more spectacular if your standing at the end of the runway!

• Although the island is small we found having a car for two weeks was well worthwhile as there are quite a lot of beaches etc to visit and also it gets you to the restaurants of choice each evening.

• We stayed at the Grand Case Beach Club resort. It's actually a group of apartments that are owned indivudually, managed collectively, and rented out when available. If you didn't know this you'd think it was a regular hotel. We had a loft room, even had two bathrooms, a kitchen and dining and lounge area: superb. Easy reach to Grand Case too where all the best restaurants are. Grand Case is known to be the gourmet centre of the Carribbean. Somewhere I have a schedule of the 10 restaurants we used so I could get this to you if you wished.

• We went to Anguilla on a day trip. Excllent. You can do it by ferry or even fly from the small airport at Grand Case instead of the international airport at Phillipsburg.

• We fixed this holiday on by D-I-Y, no problem. Perhaps the only thing to consider is that at the time there were no direct flights from the UK so we went BA via Antigua then island hopped with LIAT to St. Martin, and experience in itself!

R.

[Puggit]

KLM 747 was Sunday and Thursday last year. Air France direct from Paris, A340 was daily.

Do not fly via Miami - just don't.

[Puggit]

Here is the local's place: http://www.grandcase.com/lolos/

Check out www.grandcase.com for more general info on the place.

[Azbo]

Thank you very much guys, that exactly what I wanted to know....French side it is then. I'll also check out your recommendations.

Cheers

[5potTurbo]

Puggit said:

French side, French side, French side, French side, French side....

(am I clear?)

Dollars and general Yanks on the Dutch side, Euros and refined Yanks (and French) on the French side. Mainly European prices, but you can get cheap food and drink in 'locals' places.

We stayed here on the French side: http://love-sxm.com/love/ACCUEIL_GB.html - very much a chill out hotel (with excellent, if laid back, service). I would thoroughly recommend Grand Case. It is literally a small strip of restaurants and boutique shops.

Here's a pic I took after arriving at the beach above:

I've now spent an hour pricing up 2 weeks for Christmas & New Year, for a family of 4. Damn you, puggit!






(BTW, it came out to about €9,000) *sobs*

[Puggit]

If we could holiday day there all the time, we would!

The most amazing experience in Grand Case was eating steak and lobster under the stars, listening to live reggae, smelling marijuana and drinking Chablis.